Page 232 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

Chapter 8 Supporting Your Message 199

Exhibit 8.2
Analysis of an Argument
Backing: Using Toulmin’s Model
Saves money and
the environment

Grounds: Claim:
SUVs get lousy Warrant: Gas mileage You should not
gas mileage. is important. buy an SUV.

Qualifier:
It is likely

Rebuttal:
Unless you need
an off-road
vehicle

Three additional features may be present in an argument. The speaker may
provide backing to further support the warrant. Thus the speaker might point backing
out that good gas mileage not only saves the consumer money but is also easier Support for a warrant.
on the environment. There may also be an exception, or rebuttal, to the argu-
ment. For example, what if someone lives where it is necessary to drive off road rebuttal
or where four-wheel-drive is needed to cope with winter snows? The argument An exception to or a refu-
is not really so much that no one should buy an SUV but that most people don’t tation of an argument.
really need one. Thus the argument needs to have a qualifi er to indicate the
level of certitude of the claim. For example, “it is likely” that you should not buy qualifi er
an SUV would qualify the speaker’s claim. Visually, the Toulmin model can be An indication of the level
depicted as in Exhibit 8.1. Exhibit 8.2 shows you how this analysis would look of probability of a claim.
using our example of why one should not buy an SUV.

Claims

We make three basic types of claims when speaking: factual, value, and policy.
A factual claim states that something is true or false. Some facts are clear-cut:
2 plus 2 equals 4. Others aren’t so easy to prove: Is Social Security in danger
of bankruptcy or not? The hallmark of factual claims is that they are theoreti-
cally verifi able. Claims of value make judgments about what is good or bad, right
or wrong, moral or immoral. Much of the debate over so-called wedge issues
such as gay marriage, stem cell research, and abortion concern value judgments.
Finally, claims of policy are statements about what a person should do. Most per-
suasive speeches deal with either claims of value or policy or both. Most infor-
mative speeches are primarily about claims of fact. As we look for grounds to
support our speeches, we need to carefully assess the types of claims we plan to

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